by Kim Thompson
She asked to go to the washroom, where she slid open a window and stuck her head out. Tengu was in a tree, and when he spotted her he scrambled out on a limb and leaped and swung his way from tree to tree until he reached her window. It was quite impressive, actually. Willa was always surprised at what the little man could do. He landed in front of her, unleashing a torrent of words, including “They’ve come!” and “Ruckus” and “Robert!”
“Who’s come?”
“The builders!”
Uh-oh, thought Willa. A ruckus involving Robert was not good. Robert had a hot temper, and since he was a full-sized centaur it was hard enough keeping him out of sight without him going on a rampage. Willa did her best to calm Tengu down and promised to meet him at the house. He scampered down the tree, and she shut the window. Now I have to skip the rest of the afternoon. Terrific. Mom is going to love this.
When she arrived at the house, there was indeed a ruckus. She heard the bangs and shouts a block away. Tengu greeted her in the front yard, hopping from one foot to the other with anxious amusement. “Good, you’re here. Just in time. Hoo, boy! Robert’s gone crazy!”
Willa dropped her bike on the lawn. “Is Miss Trang here?”
Tengu shook his head. “Important meeting. Gone for a few days.”
Just then there was a mighty roar, and Robert appeared in the stable doorway, a slightly overweight, balding old man in a cardigan … with a horse’s body and legs. He ducked his head to come outside, but Willa and Tengu dashed up to stop him.
“Robert! You can’t come out here! Someone will see you!” Willa hissed. They tried to push him back, but he planted his hooves in the doorway and wouldn’t budge, his eyes blazing in outrage.
“I am NOT sharing my lodgings, as squalid as they are, with these nasty, smelly oafs!” he snarled.
“Robert! Calm down! We need them to rebuild the house!”
“I don’t care! They can stay somewhere else!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Willa saw Mrs. Hacker peering out her window. If Robert took one more step, she’d be able to see him.
“Get — a — grip, Robert! They CAN’T stay anywhere else!”
Willa and Tengu pushed again, and this time Robert stepped back into the darkness of the stable. Willa and Tengu followed, slamming the stable door behind them. There was a sudden fluttering around their heads. Willa instinctively raised her hands to swat, only to receive a couple of sharp nips.
“Ouch! Hey!”
A fairy hovered in the air in front of her, glaring. Behind her, three other fairies glimmered in the gloom.
“Sorry ladies, I thought you were moths.” Willa tried a smile. “How are you?” Looking up, she spotted Mab sitting on a rafter. “Hi, Mab, how’s things?”
The fairy queen turned away in disdain, refusing to speak. The other fairies began their angry chittering again.
“One at a time, please! I can’t understand you,” pleaded Willa. One fairy with a clipboard flew up, taking charge.
“Her High and Mighty Highness would like to communicate her complaints.” She whipped a tiny piece of paper off the clipboard and handed it to Willa.
“Um, thank you, Miss …?”
“My name is Saracenia, Sarah for short. I am Her Most Bountiful Majesty’s personal assistant.” Sarah was a pretty little thing, dressed in a velvety moss robe, clutching a clipboard and quill pen and regarding Willa with a very serious air. Willa peered at the tiny paper, which said:
ugly
stinky
vulgar
hairy
filthy
smelly
“‘Stinky’ and ‘smelly’ are technically the same thing.” Willa handed back the paper. “Who are you talking about anyway, the builders?”
“Of course!” snapped Sarah. “It is the position of our Most Ethereal One that the builders are utterly and entirely unacceptable!”
Robert stomped his hooves on the earthen floor. “Agreed! I will NOT share my living quarters with the scoundrels!” A chorus of fairy voices chimed in agreement.
“Please be reasonable,” begged Willa. “We desperately need a new house, and they’ve come to build us one.”
Robert scowled. Sarah scowled. Up on her rafter, Mab scowled. Willa took a last desperate stab. “You think you’ve got it bad? I have to share a bathroom with Belle!”
Robert snorted. Through the gloom, Willa thought she saw him hiding a smile. She stepped around him, squinting into the darkness.
“Where are they? I’d like to meet them. Oh!”
On all sides of the stable, nine figures were at work, slinging hammocks from the rafters and unpacking duffel bags. Nine stocky and very short men. Dwarves, to be precise, all looking at her with dark, unblinking eyes. They were uncannily garden gnomish, only missing the red caps. And they were definitely not human; their heads were massive, easily three times human size. The only thing keeping their big heads and huge hands from tipping them right over was the immense size of their feet. They were grimy and unkempt, in ancient leather garments and very muddy boots.
“Um … hello,” Willa ventured. They didn’t answer, just stared at her with those black button eyes. Unnerved, she turned back to Robert. “Listen, you won’t be roommates for too long. As soon as they build the first few rooms of the house, you can move in.” She looked to the dwarves. “Right?”
Some head-scratching, foot-shuffling, sideways glances, shaking of heads.
“No?” Willa raised an eyebrow.
The dwarves all looked to the one with the longest beard and most ornately embroidered jacket. Apparently the leader, he stepped up and looked very sternly at Willa, gesturing to himself and the other dwarves.
“When the first rooms are built, you’ll move in?” Willa put her hands on her hips. The dwarf leader crossed his arms defiantly. They regarded one another for a moment or two until Willa gave in.
“All right. You can be the first to move in, but only if you make the stable more secure before you begin on the house.” She gestured to the collapsed back wall of the stable, which Tengu and Robert had propped up with charred beams they’d pulled from the wreckage of the house. She’d always felt it was on the brink of falling down again. The dwarf leader walked over and gave it a long inspection. Then he nodded and held out a large hand. Willa shook it, her own hand disappearing in his rough grip.
“Okay,” Willa announced. “The dwarves will make the stable safe and then work on the house. They’ll be the first to move into the house, and then they’ll work on it extra fast.” She looked pointedly at the leader, but he kept his poker face. The other dwarves averted their eyes. One examined his blackened nails.
Willa was not filled with confidence, but at least Robert had calmed down. He backed into his corner of the stable and sat down, glowering. Willa looked up to see Mab whispering into Sarah’s ear. Sarah snapped her clipboard shut, put the quill pen behind her ear, and flew down to report.
“Our Supremely Serene Queen will allow this intrusion, but only on a temporary basis.”
“Thank you, Mab,” smiled Willa. She turned to the corner. “And you, Robert?”
“For you, Willa, I will put up with them,” he sniffed. “But I’m not going to like it.”
Chapter Two
In which the dwarves begin work and the phoenix drives everyone up the wall
“Why dwarves?” asked Willa when next she saw Horace. They were sitting at the lookout on Hanlan’s Hill, in the wooded park at the edge of town. Horace had his binoculars out and was scanning the sky for birds.
“Who better?” he answered. “Dwarves have been blacksmiths since the very dawn of time, but when the market for horseshoes declined, they branched out into all the trades. They’re marvellous workers, loyal, good-hearted …”
“I’m not sure how a crew of fairy-tale dwarves is going to help us keep a low profile in the neighbourhood,” Willa sighed.
At this Horace could only shrug and grin. Willa gazed at the town be
low, her mind awhirl with anxious thoughts about unreliable construction dwarves and how angry Robert would be if he had to spend the winter in the stable. And about what Mab might do. And her algebra quiz on Friday. And when Mom might have a total meltdown over their houseguests.
“Horace, what do you know about Belle before she came to Eldritch Manor?”
Horace thought for a moment. “Nothing at all. She’s not much for … sharing.”
Willa snorted. “You can say that again. Belle is the most unsharing person I’ve ever met!”
High above, large birds were circling. In the woods a flock of little birds lifted and skittered across her sight. Far out on the ocean, a cloud of seagulls rose and dropped behind the fishing boats. She took a deep breath. Thinking about her Grandpa out there on the water made her smile.
“Lots of birds about,” she ventured. “What are those ones way up high? Some kind of hawk?”
Horace trained his binoculars on them, nodding eagerly. “Yes, those are … those are …” He lowered the binoculars, frowning. “Drat. It’s right on the tip of my tongue. Just a moment, I’ll remember.”
Willa waited, watching as he put a palm to his forehead. A long moment passed.
“It’s all right, I was just wondering,” she said gently.
“No, no! I know this! Why can’t I remember?” His voice was agitated, and he looked away.
Poor Horace, thought Willa.
During the “troubles,” the Horace she knew had disappeared, gone with his memory into some black hole in his brain while his body continued to wander aimlessly about. He didn’t seem to know who he was or what was going on around him. Willa didn’t know much about diseases of the mind — dementia, was it called? She had no idea if it was reversible, but in Horace’s case, after the battle he’d suddenly snapped out of it and was himself again. Mostly. He still had these little memory lapses over insignificant things. It was all very normal, but it upset him terribly.
They were interrupted just then by some old-timers heading their way in single file, white-haired gentlemen and ladies in a flush of khaki and hiking boots, walking sticks and binoculars in hand. Birders. These were Horace’s new friends, a gaggle of seniors who shared his avian obsession. Willa smiled, bade Horace a quick goodbye, and started down the path to town. She didn’t want to get trapped in an endless discussion about how to tell one little brown bird apart from another little brown bird.
She was glad that Horace was mingling with real people, though — real, mortal humans. Maybe that was the secret to his regained grasp on reality. At any rate, she was glad she didn’t have to worry about him.
“Hello, Willa,” said a familiar voice.
Willa jumped. It was Mr. Hacker, nosy next-door-neighbour extraordinaire, with his wife right behind him. Willa wasn’t used to seeing them smiling. They were more often than not scowling over the fence at her. Willa smiled, said hello, and hurried on. They’re in this group too? The two people we most want to steer clear of? She’d probably have to check in on the birders from time to time now, just to make sure the Hackers weren’t prying. What would they do if they ever saw Horace the androsphinx magically transforming into a lion? Willa sighed. Another item added to the things-to-worry-about list.
Work began at the house. Overnight the dwarves banged together a high plywood fence around the lot to block the view from the street … and from the Hackers, who were in a state of apoplexy.
“It’s an eyesore!” burbled Mrs. Hacker.
“Brings down the tone of the whole neighbourhood,” harrumphed Mr. Hacker.
Willa had Horace talk to them. He applied some smooth talk about high-priced architects and how posh the new house would look. The fence was only temporary, of course, a necessary evil of construction. One must keep small children from wandering in and falling into holes.
Horace did such a job on Mr. Hacker that even when the fence was covered in graffiti, he shrugged it off with a lack of concern that left his wife speechless. For a day, anyway. Then she focused her laser beam eye of disapproval on the workers.
“I never see them arrive. I never see them leave. It’s all very mysterious!” she announced to Willa on the street.
“They work long hours. And there’s, um, lodging on the site. In the stable.”
Mrs. Hacker’s eyebrows shot up so fast, Willa thought they might pop right off her head.
“Lodging in the stable? That can’t be up to code for a dwelling, even a temporary one.”
“We couldn’t find anywhere else that suited them,” said Willa with a sly smile. “Unless you’d like to offer them your guest room? There are only nine of them.”
That got Mrs. Hacker spluttering and twitching. “Well, they’d better have all the proper work permits from city hall!” she barked and retreated into the house, slamming the front door behind her.
The idea of permits filled Willa with anxiety, but the dwarves overcame it immediately. Barely five minutes after she mentioned it to them, a very official-looking piece of paper appeared stapled to the front fence. Willa read it over with great relief.
“Dwarf magic!” chortled Tengu as he took a look.
“Magic? What do you mean?”
Tengu sniffed the paper. “Gullibility paper. And the lettering too! This is a magic font. It invokes in the viewer the belief that the document is real and official.”
“A font can’t do that!” exclaimed Willa.
“Don’t believe me? Read the words carefully — it’s all gibberish!” he giggled.
Willa reread it, more slowly this time, the words flickering and changing in front of her very eyes. Tengu was right. The notice made no sense at all.
“Nice,” she admitted. “That should shut the Hackers up, for a while at least.”
It did. The fence helped too. None of the neighbours were able to get a good look at the dwarves, but they could hear sawing, hammering, and all the noises one associates with a house going up, so they stopped paying attention. The dwarves worked on, keeping to themselves. Willa tried several times to chat with them, to no avail. They responded to her questions with shrugs or mimed gestures, never saying a word.
Oh well, thought Willa. They’re not exactly friendly, but as long as the house goes up, I don’t care.
For the first week things progressed pretty well. The dwarves constructed proper supports for the stable and then cleared out the house rubble and redug the basement in record time. Soon a layer of beams and boards covered the hole, and presto — the dwarves vacated the stable and went to live in the new underground space. Not a moment too soon, as the fairies moaned continuously about their appalling odour and general lack of hygiene. They were glad to see the dwarves go underground.
Robert was so pleased, he was very nearly smiling, but he still grumbled to Willa about the stable’s creeping damp. “The nights are autumnal, we’re into October now, and it won’t be long before the cold is unbearable. And then what’s to be done with me, eh?”
Meanwhile, Willa’s home life was becoming more complicated, and not just because of Mom and Belle. Baz was really starting to act weird. Willa knew she had some catlike elements within her, but in the past she’d kept them under control, except when under the influence of catnip. Now, suddenly, her cat side seemed to be taking over. Baz had started night-prowling, slipping out the back door after dark on who knows what mission. Willa’s parents weren’t aware of these outings, but Willa woke up around midnight once and saw Baz out the window. The portly old lady was in the middle of a parade of neighbourhood cats walking tightrope along the top of a rickety old fence. In the mornings Dad often found a dead mouse or sparrow on the front step, and Willa felt certain that Baz was behind them. Willa begged her to behave, or at least to be more careful on those fences, but Baz’s only response was to narrow her eyes and grin malevolently. At least she spent her days safely napping on the living room couch.
That wasn’t all. Trouble was also brewing over the bird. The young phoenix was not a
temporary visitor but a permanent addition to the family. As soon as she’d emerged from the flames of the house, the bird had been presented to Willa as her pet and her responsibility. This would not have been a problem if the bird had been more like her mother, Fadiyah, the wise old bird who had sacrificed herself to save Willa from the black worm. When Willa gazed into Fadiyah’s eyes she’d felt joy, confidence, and strength. Now Fadiyah was gone, and Willa felt a little lost in the world without her.
In contrast to her mother, this new bird was young and foolish and crazy and simply refused to listen. She sat quietly for the first few days, probably shell-shocked, but then the squawking and acting up began. Her harsh cries were like nails on a blackboard. Baz teased her into a nervous tizzy until the bird threw itself at the cage bars, sending feathers floating about the room.
Realizing that cat and bird in the same room was a recipe for trouble, Willa moved the cage to her room, but the bird’s fits did not stop. Willa was terrified she was hurting herself. Actually, to be perfectly honest, Willa was just plain terrified of the bird. She was big, about the size of a large hawk, and her cage took up the entire surface of Willa’s desk. Her gleaming white beak hooked downward to a very sharp point, and she had wicked claws. Large black eyes provided no clues to her thoughts. The soft white fuzz around her face gave way to glossy black plumage at the back of her head and down her wings, but she had a patchy appearance, since she kept losing her feathers. Willa tried different foods, toys, and distractions, and she covered the cage with a cloth to get the bird to stop squawking and sleep at night, but nothing helped. The bird fussed and butted against the bars of her cage until she was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep, to everyone’s relief. Then a few hours later she’d wake and it would start all over again.
“The bird has got to go,” Willa’s mom pronounced one day.